Oliver Heaviside (1850 - 1925, England)


  • Caught scarlet fever when he was a young child and this affected his hearing.

  • At age 16 he left school. He taught himself Morse code and electricity. He was helped by his uncle Charles Wheatstone (after whom the Wheatstone bridge* was named).

  • Heaviside introduced operational calculus to enable him to solve the ordinary DEs which came out of the theory of electrical circuits. He replaced the differential operator d/dx by a variable p transforming a differential equation into an algebraic equation. The solution of the algebraic equation could be transformed back using conversion tables to give the solution of the original differential equation.

  • Had the idea for an induction coil to increase induction, but it was patented in 1904 in the United States by AT&T.

  • His nails were always exquisitely manicured, and painted a glistening cherry pink...(!)

 

*Wheatstone bridge, used for determining an unknown resistance:


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